He had climbed upon the statue. One paw reached up as a wicked grin licked at his lips. So close, he could feel the beat of the firefly wings buzz within the eye sockets. They pulsed and vibrated until one dull claw tried to swipe a firefly away. It was then that a sound he could never imagine to exist exploded within his eardrums. Echoing through the statue and then into his own body, Ghoul is blinded. Unable to see, hear, feel, to even breathe, he lay in the void of darkness. What he had not seen was the hundreds of fireflies that had shot right at him. Covering his whole body until he was nothing but a mere mass of shadows. Light did not exist in those moments as he was enveloped by fireflies. Confused and terrified, the pale boy would not expect what came next. Pain radiated over his entire body as the fireflies attacked. Bashing into him, one by one, as they pelted his body until he felt more than pain. A searing coldness that was nothing compared to the agony of wounds afflicted by that of a fight. There was nothing to describe the terror that consumed him as the fireflies continued to penetrate down to his very core. It would slowly shift until the scorch of agony covered his shoulders, hips, and legs. Crack. Ghoul tried to scream. Nothing would release from his slack-jawed lips. His ruby eyes would roll back in his head as he felt the unbearable weight of hundreds of fireflies pressing onto his limbs. CrAcK. Onto his ankles, his elbows, his forearms. Shattering one by one until he began to convulse. Held tight in the grasp of the fireflies, he does not fall yet. The fireflies continue to ensure that every piece of bone from shoulder to toe is splintered to oblivion. THUD. Fireflies vanish leisurely back into the statue's sockets as Ghoul's crumpled body falls to the ground. Rolling from the statue until he lay limply. Barely conscious, his eyes flutter as he tries to stay alive. Unsure of what had just happened to his body, he lays still, trying to focus more on breathing than anything else. Around him, other wolves continue to bring forth their offerings. It was as if he didn't exist... Sucking in a shuddering breath, he lets out a yowl of pain that would break a mother's heart. There is no feeling, no sensation, no movement capable of coming from any of his legs. He can thump his shortened tail against the stone, feel the hair along his spine rise, and even gently lift his chin from the floor, but his legs do not cooperate. How was he to survive? To live? To feed himself? To do anything? Fear envelops him, taking over the pain as he searches around for anyone who would help. Would anyone come to his aid?

The cool pockets of unusual autumn weather had been the focus of his attention for some time now, slinking around the fringes and observing the comings and goings of those who visited the altars. So when his brothers sauntered up to the idol of death.. well that wasn't going to go well, now would it? Mismatched eyes fixed on the pair as they approached, and stood by idly to watch them engage with the stone statue. The punishment that came was.. perhaps a little more severe than he'd have expected, or liked to see. The swarms of incandescent insects that assaulted both of his brothers were far more powerful than he could have anticipated, and he wasn't keen to risk his own hide to intervene. Instead, he waited until the servants of death had returned to their nests within those empty granite sockets and slunk up to Ghoul.

The gut wrenching screech of pain that shuddered from deep within his burly brother's chest rattled his skull and pulled a quiet whine from his own throat as he drew closer. "I don't know how you expected that to go," he began softly, with a small sigh and a concerned pinch between his pale brows. Dark auds tipped back against his skull, landing on the feverish, glazed expression that Ghoul wore. It didn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out that limbs weren't supposed to bend in that many places, or at those angles. Would he ever walk again? "Let's get you out of here, before you find another way to anger the gods." he muttered, shaking his head lightly as he cast his gaze around in search of some way to transport his crippled sibling. Should he call for a healer first? Maybe Widow was nearby, she was the best of the litter with these kinds of debacles, having had to watch the brothers nearly kill each other constantly.

Viscera tipped back his skull to summon a healer, the sonorous call echoing against the dark stone of the altar and out into the woods beyond. "I'm gonna hunt down the materials for a stretcher of some kind, hopefully someone else can help haul you back home." he said quietly, lowering his head to gingerly press his nose to the top of his brother's skull and smooth his tongue absently over the fur between his ears. It was hard to be mad at Ghoul when he was so clearly suffering, so he would leave the teasing for another time. Better to get him out of here and somewhere safe for the time being.

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Ghoul lay there and attempted to hold onto consciousness. The fireflies had surely done him in for good. No feeling radiated from the shoulders down. How he was even still alive was beyond him. All he could do was match his ruby stare with the buzzing ruby stare of the statue. Now that everyone had gone and made their offerings, he had been left to suffer. What had happened to Macabre he wasn't sure, but it hadn't sounded pleasant either. Through the hum of pain that shattered his entire being, he had watched his cow-spotted brother through a haze of blurry vision. Dipping in and out of reality, Ghoul had not expected his savior to be his other brother, Viscera. The low whine drew his attention first as he turned his chin to spy on the ivory and cobalt twin. "Vis," Ghoul rasped, unable to discern the expression on his brother's face. Not that he would have actually paid any mind to the concern drawing his brother's brow together, but he appreciated it all the same. Get him out of here? Is that what Vis had said? How was he doing to do that? Alone? Ichor was who knows where, Mac was off suffering his own pain, and Widow had been absent for a while now. So who was left to help them? In the hazy mess that surrounded him as he tried to get into a more comfortable position, he heard the call his brother released into the air. Would Widow come? Would their mother come? Surely she was still livid about the whole challenge debacle, but after Kali, she wouldn't leave a pup of her's to die... Would she? Dazed and still trying his hardest to keep himself awake, his eyelids fluttered when Vis lowered his muzzle to kiss the top of his head. "Thank you," Ghoul murmured as best as he could before laying his head back down. Closing his eyes all the way, he attempted to relax and focus on staying alive while his brother went to do what he could to assist.

The raspy thanks he got in response from Ghoul was promising, it meant he was at least lucid enough right now to understand what was going on around him. Anxiety tightened his chest as he stared at the taupe furred boy laying at the base of the statue, unable to move and unable to defend himself if necessary. He would need to move quickly, and if no one else showed up to help.. well. He might have to try and set those broken bones himself... somehow. He'd seen his sister practicing her herbology, but that was nothing like setting a bone. As he plunged into the thick, humid undergrowth of the forest he forced his concern away. There was no time to worry. For now he needed to focus on what was in front of him. There were vines all over, plenty of young trees to strip for branches to use in a stretcher for his brother. The ferns that sprung up in dense clusters all around the bases of the trees could be spread over a stretcher to make a more stable platform.

His pale form moved through the shadows, quick enough to be played off as a flash of mist as he slipped under overhanging vines and massive leaves. The lower portions of his limbs were soaked through with damp in no time, but he paid it no heed. Once he found it almost impossible to breach the undergrowth, he knew it was time to set to gathering materials. Being a big wolf had its advantages, and he could easily throw his weight around when grabbing hold of thick vines that draped over the gnarled branches of the old growth trees that populated the deepest region of the forest. The weaker branches snapped and tumbled to the forest floor with a thunderous crash that sent the local wildlife scattering in every direction. Silence was not the name of the game today, but speed. He didn't care if every predator or prey animal from here to the coast knew his exact location.

The branches that nearly crushed him with each length of vine collected were a bonus, each one well suited to carrying his brother back to safety. If he lashed a few together, they would be plenty sturdy. The pallid prince needed to be cautious as he wrapped each vine around his neck to carry, so he didn't choke himself. It was only as he bundled the branches together with one last vine that he realized his legs were shaking. This was a whole lot of work, and now he had to haul it all back to the shrine, before he could get to work and even start to think about getting Ghoul home. With a heavy sigh, he shook his head and got moving again. The way the forest grew steadily lighter as he approached the clearing was the only indication that he was moving in the right direction. The vegetation grew so close that it covered up the evidence of his earlier flight from the statue.

Viscera let out a grunt as he dropped his materials beside Ghoul, and flopped onto his haunches. Covered in mud and bits of lichen, he looked more like his twin than he did himself. The lengths he went to keep his family safe.. "Ghoul," he said, loud enough that he should have been able to wake his brother if he'd fallen asleep. "open your eyes. Talk to me, alright? You shouldn't fall asleep right now, not until we can get you to a proper healer." he warned, unravelling the myriad vines from around his neck and setting them aside. Deft claws sorted through the half dozen branches that he'd collected, mentally mapping out how he wanted them to fit together.

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